Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be released for both PS3 and Xbox 360.

Another year, another Call of Duty game; Its been proven time and time again that the yearly release cycle can make or break a franchise, and COD has had a fairly good run so far.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a much anticipated first-person shooter, developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. So here we go again the fine folks at Activision sent over the PS3 version Call of Duty Black Ops II for us to check out. As I settled down to check the game over.

In the end, I'm surprised to hear myself recommending another Call of Duty game after so many have been released this generation, but my craving to play the game speaks for itself.

New height for storytelling in Call of Duty games; Multiplayer has aged with us; remodeling an addictive competitive online component to prioritize customization; There's quite a bit of game here; and something for everyone

Strike Force missions bog down a surprisingly good Single-Player campaign; PS3 version doesn't run as well as its Xbox 360 counterpart; We miss Spec Ops

Right when you were thinking you could skip the annual Call of Duty release due to franchise fatigue or simply wanting to take a year off, Treyarch delivers one of the most full-featured and best games in the series.

The branching campaign story; Exploring the wide-open Tranzit Zombies mode; Customizing your multiplayer loadout with the "Pick 10" system

The unresponsive AI in the Strike Force Missions; Not having friends to play Zombies with; Players who use the Guardian Scorestreak effectively

Los Angeles is aflame. The pavement is red, and the white clouds in the sky have been tainted by the black smoke rising from the skyscrapers. The explosions blind me at first, and then leave a ringing tone in my ears.

While the Modern Warfare franchise tends to play it safe, Treyarch was especially brave with its shepherding of the Call of Duty brand in the first Black Ops. Including its patented zombie mode along with a top-down shooter and other hidden goodies, it wasn't afraid to break the mold of the...

My arms feel like they're permanently vibrating from all of the machine-gunning I've been doing lately. I've played just about every aspect of Call of Duty: Black Ops II , and I have the sore wrists to prove it.

It's not the same old Call of Duty Treyarch threw me for a loop with the fresh take on the aging franchise, pushing the story from the 1960s to the near-future; The drone war over Los Angeles is somewhat plausible, and we haven't seen this version of the apocalypse in movie after movie and game...

The story isn't easy to follow, and it's improbable The evil Raul Menendez gets under your skin; He is clearly insane, yet he's also supposed to be this great leader who can inspire a billion oppressed people to rise against the superpowers.

Jetpacks with rigid wings. Gloves that can adhere to any surface and support your body weight. Advertisements that feature your face when you walk by. The campaign in Call of Duty: Black Ops II has some interesting ideas about the future of technology, but what about the future of this massively...

Great campaign scripting; Story choices are often tough and encourage replay; League play offers a new stage for the familiar multiplayer combat

Zombies mode is stagnant; New codcasting tool is hamstrung; Live streaming feature is not functional

The Call of Duty franchise is notable for several reasons, among them the fact that they have such a huge stable of releases with only a relatively small dip in quality. These dips are not uncommon with long-running franchises, with both developer ennui and publisher restrictions contributing to the...

● Zombies! ● Multiplayer is much more rewarding ● Production value is high; as usual

● Cookie-cutter shooter campaign ● Some definite improvements; but no real innovation